ACT Announces 2011 New Play Award: South of Settling 3/12-13

Playwright Emily Schwend has been named ACT's 2011 New Play Award winner for her play South of Settling. Two FREE staged readings will be presented in ACT's Bullitt Cabaret on March 12 at 8:00 p.m. and March 13 at 2:00 p.m. Each reading will be followed immediately by post-play discussions with the playwright and the director, Anita Montgomery.

Set in Carthage, Missouri, long-time residents Kate and her husband Irwin live, pray, and purposefully contribute to the fabric of their community. Into their seemingly settled and quiet lives arrives an estranged and troubled family member who opens, over the course of a single weekend, some long closed doors of feeling and memory.
South of Settling is an intimate portrait of a family struggling to recognize and reconcile some of the painful and confusing events of their lives. Schwend's subtle, gentle portrait of quiet strength, endurance, and purposeful generosity in small town middle-America pinpoints a human need: to listen intently for fear of missing life's grace notes.

Now in its sixth year, the ACT New Play Award is sponsored by Gian-Carlo and Eulalie Scandiuzzi. Their generous support provides for a national call for submissions and a highly-competitive review process. The winner receives $2,500 and the opportunity to workshop their play at ACT.
"Emily Schwend's South of Settling focuses on a kind of straightforward compassion and tenderness that's rarely seen onstage these days," said Montgomery. "It's refreshing and caused us to lean forward, and deeply, into the world of the play."

Past ACT New Play Award recipients include David Weiner's Extraordinary Chambers in 2010, Zakiyyah Alexander's Sweet Maladies in 2009, presented by The Hansberry Project; Yussef El Guindi's Language Rooms in 2008, which was produced at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia last year (El Guindi will also debut the world premiere of Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World as a part of ACT's 2011 Mainstage season); The K of D in 2006 by Laura Schellhardt which moved on to the Woolly Mammoth, Balagan, and Magic Theatres, and is now playing at Seattle Repertory Theatre; and Mitzi's Abortion in 2005 by Elizabeth Heffron which was later produced as part of ACT's own 2006 Mainstage season.

About the Playwright
Emily Schwend is an alumni of Juilliard and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Her plays include
Carthage, Splinters, and Route One Off. In New York, her work has been developed or produced by Page 73, the Juilliard School, Partial Comfort Productions, Ars Nova, the Stella Adler Studio Acting School, and Christine Jones' Theatre for One booth. Regionally, her plays have been developed at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, the Marin Theatre Company in California, the Source Festival in DC, and the ALLIANCE THEATRE in Atlanta. Schwend is a two-time Lecomte du Nouy Prize winner, the 2009 David Calicchio Emerging American Playwrights Prize winner, a 2009 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition finalist, and a 2009-2010 Interstate 73 member. Born in Texas, raised all over the world, and a little obsessed with Missouri, Schwend is now based in Brooklyn.

About ACT: A Theatre of New Ideas - Raising Consciousness Through Theatre
Located in the heart of downtown Seattle and serving a population of curious, open-minded, and brave audiences, ACT - A Contemporary Theatre is the only theatre in Seattle dedicated to producing contemporary work with promising playwrights and local performing artists since 1965. A theatre of new ideas, ACT serves as a cultural engine that makes plays, dance, music, and film that touch us. Because contemporary life demands examination, ACT is driven to inspire and strengthen our diverse community through works that advance our understanding of human life. With more than 100,000 people who attend shows annually, ACT is an interactive community where artists and the public witness, contemplate, and engage in dialogue on today's thought-provoking issues, ideas and art, presented with intelligence, insight, and humor.

ACT gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our 2011 Season Sponsors: ACT Foundation, ArtsFund, The Eulalie Bloedel Schneider Artists Fund, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The John Graham Foundation, The Mayor's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and The Shubert Foundation.
ACT's 2011 New Play Award Workshop is made possible with the help of Gian-Carlo and Eulalie Scandiuzzi.

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